Monday, October 3, 2011

"I think that you have to assume that because of climate change, there are going be a lot more refugees," Clinton said.

A displaced family in Africa.

The following paragraphs are shown, courtesy of Brian Merchant of the Desdemona Despair blog. In an interview with the former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, the crisis of the growing displacement of millions of people across the globe, as a direct result of climate disasters is clearly illustrated. Six years ago, the United Nations (UN) urged states worldwide, to prepare for victims of climate change, as it was envisioned that there would have been over 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade.

Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Janos Bogardi, director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn, said creeping environmental deterioration already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse. "There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change," Dr Bogardi said. "This new category of refugee needs to find a place in international agreements. We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations." - The Guardian.

In June of this year, The Guardian also reported on an updated statement from the UN, indicating that the number of displaced people around the world had hit a 15-year high.

2011 Refugees statistics map.

The number of forcibly displaced people around the world has reached a 15-year high, according to the UN high commission for refugees (UNHCR), with the vast majority languishing in poor countries ill-equipped to cater to their needs. The UNHCR’s 2010 trends report estimated that there were 43.7 million refugees and people displaced within their country by events such as war and natural disasters at the end of last year. More than half of the total is children. The figure does not take into account the new wave of migration set in train by the upheaval of the Arab spring. The figure breaks down into a global total of 15.4 million refugees, 27.5 million internally displaced people and a further 840,000 people waiting to be given refugee status. The 48-page report also reveals that there has been a fall in the number of returning refugees to 197,600, the lowest in two decades. This has resulted in the number of long-term refugees in “protracted situations” making up almost half of the total of all refugees, the highest number for a decade. The report puts the blame for this on “humanitarian crises and the political situation in a number of countries”. However, there has been a slight dip in the total number of refugees worldwide on 2009 levels. The agency has also estimated that there are 12 million stateless people around the world.

Here's Merchant's blog on Clinton's views on what is shaping up to be a monumental crisis.

Some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change will be felt by the millions of people who will be forced to leave their homes: Climate refugees will flee island nations rendered inhospitable by rising sea levels, arid regions increasingly wracked by drought, and wet, low-lying areas that grow ever more prone to flooding. The international system that currently works to find refugees new homes will likely be overloaded as this occurs -- we won't be able to deal with so many mass exoduses at once. That's why Bill Clinton thinks we need to overhaul the current system to deal with climate refugees. At a roundtable meeting with Clinton and a handful of other writers as part of the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative, I asked the 42nd President what he thought of current refugee policy in the face of our changing climate.

"I think that you have to assume that because of climate change, there are going be a lot more refugees," Clinton said. "And that the laws which exist, and the systems of support that exist, not just the US but elsewhere, were basically built for a different time when you might have a surge of refugees from this country or a surge from that country, because of a particular political upheaval or a particular natural disaster. And that's almost certainly going to not work now. I think that in general we should become more open to immigration again," Clinton said. "Keeping people in limbo is a waste of human potential." - Desdemona Despair.

Of course, if you have been an ardent reader of my website and have been following my thoughts on the cyclic cataclysmic event of Death and Rebirth, then you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that these Earth changes and the dramatic effects that results from it, will be used in the Thesis/Anti-Thesis/Synthesis towards a New World Order of the Ages, which is really what the Clinton Global Initiative is all about.

We go in circles and circles, but our elliptical orbit, always seems to take us right back to the same place and agenda. Doesn't it?

There has been a major increase in the deaths of turtles in Queensland, Australia; however scientists and researchers, astonishingly believe that there is no need to panic.

In the past nine months, 1000 turtles, mostly green turtles, have died, compared with 555 in 2010, 625 in 2009 and 552 in 2008, figures from the Department of Environment and Resource Management show. They are mostly dying from natural causes and are often found emaciated, with just mango seeds or algae in their stomachs. Sea grasses, turtles' main food source, have died off in record amounts after millions of tonnes of sediment flowed into coastal areas during the summer's floods. James Cook University marine turtle ecologist Dr Mark Hamann says the turtle population is resilient and the scale of deaths have been taken out of context. "Green turtles live all throughout the Great Barrier Reef, in the coral atolls, the lagoons and in the deeper water, from Moreton Bay all the way up to the Torres Strait, and it is only the coastal strip that has been impacted by this extreme weather," he told AAP on Monday. "There are a lot of turtles out there that haven't been impacted at all. "To have 1000 die in a year is alarming, but it is not going to lead to any depletions. "We don't need to panic." The last survey of green turtles in coral areas, not including coastal areas, counted 800,000, and was increasing by three per cent a year, Dr Hamann said.

Concerns have been raised that a mass dredging project in the Port of Gladstone is contributing to the turtle die-off. The state government is yet to decide whether a three-week ban on fishing in the port - which was implemented after diseased fish were caught - will be lifted when it expires on Friday. Around 46 million cubic tonnes of seabed is being dredged to make way for two liquefied natural gas plants and export hubs at Curtis Island, as well as the expansion of the Gladstone port. Local fishermen and the Australian Greens want dredging to be suspended until it can be confirmed that it's not linked to marine life dying off. Of the 1000 turtles that have become stranded this year, 188 were found in the Gladstone area, where six dolphins and eight dugongs have also died. One of four dredgers working on the project had stopped work on Friday because turbidity was above set levels. Spoil that is dredged is being dumped into Fisherman's Landing on the harbour, a reclamation area that will create a land reserve used to service new port facilities. The Gladstone Ports Corporation told AAP that water was leaking out of the Landing at extreme low tides at such a force it stirred up sediment on the outside of the bund wall. Chief executive Leo Zussino said that no spoil has leaked out from the bund wall as a membrane liner is designed to stop its movement. However, he said the GPC and DERM were looking at options to completely seal the bund wall. He said monitoring checks by DERM show there are no toxic substances in the spoil. The GPC also says there is no scientific evidence to suggest the project to date has had any effect that would contribute to the loss of marine life or disease in fish. - Yahoo Australia.

The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency due to a severe shortage of fresh water, with officials saying Monday that some parts of the country may only have a two-day supply.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully said his country was working with the Red Cross to deliver aid workers and supplies as quickly as possible. He said Tuvalu first declared the emergency last week and the situation had deteriorated since then. Water was scarce in the capital, Funafuti, and a number of outlying islands, McCully said, adding that he had received reports saying some places would run out of fresh water within days.

A New Zealand defense service C-130 plane arrived Monday carrying two desalination units and a number of water containers, McCully said. Tuvalu — a grouping of low-lying coral atolls that is home to less than 11,000 people — isn't the only Pacific island running out of fresh water after six months of low rainfall. Officials from Australia and New Zealand have said they are worried about other islands in the region, including Tokelau. McCully said his government would work with aid agencies to try and figure out a long-term response to the situation. Monday was and national holiday in Tuvalu and government officials could not be immediately reached for comment. - AP.

Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia.

A giant underground reservoir of molten rock has been discovered under the deserts of Ethiopia by British geologists, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

They targeted the Afar region in the Horn of Africa after a recent surge in volcanic activity and earthquakes plus the appearance of giant cracks in the rocky surface. Tectonic plates in the area are pulling apart and gradually creating a new ocean. Now, the scientists have mapped the colossal underground lake of magma that lies up to 20 miles (32km) below the earth's surface. "We estimate that there is 3,000 cubic kilometers of molten rock under Afar -- enough to cover all of London ... with around a kilometer of rock," said Kathy Whaler, professor of geophysics at Edinburgh University. The reservoir is under such pressure that it has forced tongues of molten rock up towards the surface, producing eruptions and earthquakes. In 2005, a 25-foot (7.6m) wide tongue of lava spread 40 miles (64km) under Afar in 10 days and solidified, and many more followed.

Afar lies in east Africa's Great Rift Valley at a point where three tectonic plates are pulling apart from each other. Such movement creates gaps, or rifts, in the Earth's crust, which allows molten rock to well up from deep below. There are thousands of miles of these rifts around the world but almost all lie deep below the ocean. East Africa and Iceland are the only places where they emerge on to land. Much of Afar is already below sea level but is protected from flooding by a barrier of low hills in Eritrea. Geologists believe the protective barrier will be overcome in about one million years, allowing the Red Sea to inundate the whole area. Whaler, who presented her preliminary results to the UK's Royal Society last week, said, "Over geological time parts of southern Ethiopia and Somalia will split off and form a new island that moves out into the Indian Ocean." - MyFoxDFW.

The high atmosphere over the Arctic lost an unprecedented amount of its protective ozone earlier this year, so much that conditions echoed the infamous ozone hole that forms annually over the opposite side of the planet, the Antarctic, scientists say.

"For the first time, sufficient loss occurred to reasonably be described as an Arctic ozone hole," write researchers in an article released online Sunday by the journal Nature. Some degree of ozone loss above the Arctic, and the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole, are annual events during the poles' respective winters. They are driven by a combination of cold temperatures and lingering ozone-depleting pollutants. The reactions that convert less reactive chemicals into ozone-destroying ones take place within what is known as the polar vortex, an atmospheric circulation pattern created by the rotation of Earth and by cold temperatures. This past winter and spring saw an unusually strong polar vortex and an unusually long cold period.

This year's record vortex persisted over the Arctic from December to the end of March, and the cold temperatures extended down to a remarkably low altitude, the researchers write. At altitudes of about 11 to 12 miles (18 to 20 kilometers), more than 80 percent of the ozone present in January had been chemically destroyed by late March. The same dynamics create the infamous ozone hole over Antarctica. But above the South Pole, ozone is essentially completely removed from the lower stratosphere ever year. Above the North Pole, however, ozone loss is highly variable and has, until now, been much more limited, according to an international research team led by Gloria Manney of the California Institute of Technology. Countries agreed to end their production of the substances ultimately responsible for destruction of the ozone in 1987 with the Montreal Protocol. However, these pollutants, including chlorofluorocarbons, still linger in the atmosphere. - MSNBC.

Following the discovery of 17 dead dolphins in Ujung Kulon, residents of Parangtritis and Depok Beach, Yogyakarta in Indonesia, witness the same phenomenon. A number of dolphins were found dead and stranded.

"The officers discovered dead fish on the shore not far from the search and rescue (SAR) command post of Parangtritis," said Taufik M Faqi, Secretary of the SAR Parangtritis team, Bantul, Yogyakarta. Taufik stated that as the dolphins were in terrible condition, the SAR officers buried them. "Last Sunday, around 9 a.m. we buried the dead dolphins," he said. Last Friday, Jakarta Animal Aid Network Coordinator of Wildlife Research and Rehabilitation, Benvika, said there were 17 dead dolphins stranded in Ujung Kulon, western part of Java. He explained that the dolphins had been stranded since last Wednesday. First, 16 dead dolphins were found, and the next day another bottle-nose dolphin was found lifeless. Benvika revealed, a scientific assessment as to why the dolphins were dead is underway. "It is believed that the dolphins were lost and ended up stranded," he said. - VIVA News.

Motorists nationwide in New Zealand, are being advised to take care as bad weather grips the country.

MetService has advised that a strong moist northerly flow will affect northern and central New Zealand through to Tuesday and heavy rain has already been causing problems in Nelson. As a result police and councils have issued a raft of warnings. Thunderstorms, strong winds, heavy rain and the risk of a tornado have been forecast for Auckland and Auckland Transport is warning motorists to take care when travelling especially as winds are expected to reach 110km/h at times tonight. There is a thunderstorm watch for Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula, Taranaki, Taumarunui, Waikato and Waitomo. The MetService weather radar has detected severe thunderstorms near North Taranaki. Residents in New Plymouth, Waitara, Bell Block, Motunui, Lepperton, Stratford, Inglewood, Midhirst, Tarata and Egmont Village are being warned to prepare for thunderstorms accompanied by very heavy rain, damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes.

Sergeant Andy Dow is advising drivers in and around the Wellington to take extra care. Dow says there is low misty cloud in many areas and this is limiting visibility. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council says heavy rain forecast in the area could result in localised flooding over the next 24 hours, and farmers should move stock to high ground. Bay of Plenty Regional Council Duty Flood Manager Graeme O'Rourke said rainfall is expected to exceed 100mm, and northeasterly winds will hit the eastern Bay area particularly hard. O'Rourke said the recent dry conditions and low river flows meant the rivers and drains in the region had some capacity to take heavy rainfall but urged people to take care. "It is possible that water levels will rise quickly, so people should stay away from waterways to avoid being caught out," O'Rourke said. - TVNZ.

A second typhoon in a week pounded the Philippines over the weekend, weakening Sunday only after prompting evacuations, causing severe flooding and contributing to at least one death.

As Typhoon Nalgae moved out of the Philippine area of responsibility, it left 18 people dead in Bulacan and many towns in central Luzon provinces flooded. According to reports, most of the dead were either electrocuted or killed by falling trees. Nalgae hit the Philippines on Saturday with winds of 140 kilometers per hour (87 miles per hour), and moved towards Vietnam. It is the second typhoon to hit the southeast Asian nation after Nesat battered the country on Tuesday, killing at least 52 people. The country is still recovering from the two typhoons and a third one is forecast to be heading for the country after the weather bureau spotted another low pressure area.

Worst hit by the floods are the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan with many towns chest deep in water. The flooding was caused by the Tuesday downpour and the release of water by dam operators to prevent bursting of the dikes. The government expects the flooding in central Luzon to last for three more days. Many residents had to stay on their rooftops or second floors. Many of them refused to transfer to overcrowded schools converted temporarily into evacuation centers. Affected residents requested ready-to-eat food and water. The Social Welfare Department has sought assistance from United Nations agencies to send food, water, medicine and emergency care. The government estimates cost of the damage from Nesat alone at $182 million (PHP 8 billion). Affected directly were 2.7 million residents from 34 provinces of which 165,000 are staying in 500 evacuation centers. - All Headline News.

WATCH: Philippines reels in second typhoon's wake.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Nalgae is now threatening Hainan and Vietnam today with heavy rainfall while an area of low pressure is moving towards Japan bringing heavy rainfall to locations around Honshu. Invest 90W still bears watching North of Palau where the risk of flooding in the Philippines would increase if this system developed and moved east.

Hundreds of people were left homeless when a tornado tore through the town of Duduza near Nigel, east of Johannesburg, in South Africa, on Sunday, paramedics said.

“A hundred and five individuals were injured,” said ER24 spokesperson Andre Visser. Several people were injured during the tornado, Ekurhuleni mayoral spokesperson Prince Hamnca said on Sunday night. “Some are still being treated but we will only be able to give proper information tomorrow (Monday). They (emergency services staff) are doing a head count,” he said. The R550 road in Nigel had been closed because of fallen trees. Gauteng Health MEC Ntombi Mekgwe and Ekurhuleni Mayor Mondli Gungubele were on the scene, said Hamnca. Earlier on Sunday, a nine-year-old boy was killed and 42 people injured in what paramedics said was a tornado in Ficksburg in the Free State. “It has killed one and left more than 1 000 houses destroyed,” said Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha. Hundreds of people were left homeless. - IOL News.

Authorities in Algeria say torrential downpours have killed at least 10 people and ruined hundreds of homes. A mother and her infant daughter are also missing.

The country's meteorological service had warned about strong thunderstorms across the country from Saturday into Sunday. The civil protection authority said in a statement that on Sunday it recovered eight bodies from one town, El Bayadh, 435 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of the capital. Rescuers are still looking for a woman and her 9-month-old baby there. Two other bodies were found in towns to the north of El Bayadh. Hundreds of families were affected when the waters either tore down or inundated their homes. Algeria often sees heavy rain and flooding in October. - ABC News.

According to the latest update from Space Weather, although decaying sunspot 1302 poses a diminishing threat for X-class solar flares, there was a double eruption on the Sun yesterday (October 1st), as a solar wind flowing from a minor coronal hole should reach Earth on October 3rd.

DOUBLE ERUPTION: On October 1st around 10:17 UT, widely-spaced sunspots 1302 and 1305 erupted in quick succession, revealing a long-distance entanglement which was not obvious before. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the double blast. Since it was launched in 2010, SDO has observed many "entangled eruptions." Active regions far apart but linked by magnetic fields can explode one after another, with disturbances spreading around the stellar surface domino-style. Yesterday's eruption appears to be the latest example. The part of the eruption centered on sunspot 1305 hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The relatively slow-moving (500 km/s) cloud is expected to reach our planet on October 4th, possibly causing geomagnetic storms when it arrives. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.